• SHORTLY after taking over the management of Hampstead Heath from the GLC in the late 1990s the City of London Corporation attempted to banish swimming in the fish and duck ponds (a non-sporting, leisure pursuit) as unaffordable.

Not publicised by the corporation – in its great tradition of secrecy – was the obscured fact that the Margaret Thatcher government had already paid for the entire annual upkeep of Hampstead Heath henceforth through the “City Offset”; an arrangement whereby annual taxation, which normally went to the Treasury, is reportedly paid to the corporation to meet the cost of running Hampstead Heath, including freely swimming in the fish and duck ponds, as an individual leisure pursuit, under the 1871 Hampstead Heath Act.

On that basis there appears to be no shortage finance, then or now.

Worse; the corporation appear now to have arranged to be paid twice: once from diverted central government funds (the City Offset) and now (wrongly and needlessly) from charges for an individual leisure activity which is meant to be free by act of parliament.

It is reported that expenditure on running Hampstead Heath is estimated to have been in decline, in real terms, in recent years. That, plus City Offset cash and the new revenue from charges, indicates financial surpluses above costs.

Where do the implied budget surpluses go? Inevitably to the City of London Corporation, to run an wasteful, near chaotic, (see Lord Lisvane’s report, published late 2020) uneconomic, possibly cash-strapped corporation.

The City of London Corporation needs proper parliamentary scrutiny and, arguably, proper reform. We have a stake in that.

ROBERT SUTHERLAND SMITH
Chairman United Swimmers Association